Night Watch: BAGHDAD – Speaking in the Jordan capital Amman Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki continued to distance himself from Washington by stating the negotiations to permit the U. S. to maintain forces in Iraq after 2008 have reached a “dead end.” The Jerusalem Post/AP quoted him regarding the initial framework agreed upon which was to have an accord “between two completely sovereign states” but the proposals from Washington “do not take into consideration Iraq’s sovereignty.” Reports have indicated Washington insisted on not only retaining air and water rights to Iraq but also American military personnel would be immune from any prosecution for any crimes committed in Iraq. In effect Iraq would remain what it has been for the past five years, a vassal state of the U. S. Prime Minister Maliki concluded his remarks by saying Washington’s proposals essentially “violate Iraq’s sovereignty. At the end we reached a dead end.” This sums up the result of the U. S. occupation of the country. Washington’s Embassy in Baghdad refused requests to comment on Maliki’s statement. Not only does this end long term military cooperation between Washington/Baghdad but also military cooperation in the present as Tehran prepares a new wave of attacks targeting specifically UK/US troops. [JPOST]

Kufa – Leading the new wave of attacks against the foreign occupation will be Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who announced happily through Kufa, eighty miles south of Baghdad, the formation of a new special group, Xinhua reports he stated, “The weapons of this armed group will only be directed toward the occupiers. The resistance of the occupiers will be carried out exclusively by a special group which I will declare later. We will keep on resisting the occupiers until the liberation of Iraq or our martyrdom.” I suspect the group had been formed and trained already and al-Sad’rs word will be to send them into action. This is of course Tehran’s creation and timed with Iran’s military having completed its own preparations for (f)allout war not only in this regional theatre but also in Southeast Europe in support of Serbia and South Asia in support of Pakistan. So I suspect Tehran has armed this “special group” more heavily than any other resistance unit and probably with effective anti-tank and anti-air missiles. It is also quite possible Muqtada’s new unit will also be in direct military communication with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and could be used to target UK/US forces in the field to be hit by Iranian cruise missiles and eventually air units. [XINHUA]

Peshawar – Washington continues to add to its long lists of enemies, something it is quietly quite proud of since its means more business for the weapons industry, by killing eleven Pakistani troops near the Afghan border earlier in the week. In response Asharq al-Awsat/Reuters is reporting elders from the ethnic Pashtun tribe in the Mohmand region issued a statement Thursday denouncing the attack as “naked aggression” and vowed to raise a “lashkar” tribal militia to help Pakistan defend the border from further attacks by Washington. “It is the duty of the government to protect and defend the frontiers and we are ready to raise a lashkar to help defend our army in their cause.” Washington is proudly and blindly continuing its international policy of alienation including of countries that tried to be its ally. [ASHARQALAWSAT]

Sderot – Some of the most hateful enemies of Hamas are Palestinians who used to live in Gaza, the Gaza Arabs who left the territory with Israel’s 2005 withdrawal and they are now calling for Israel to make its invasion as the only way of ending the increasing rocket-missile-mortar attacks. INN is reporting there are eighty families in Sderot who are Gaza Arabs that openly and proudly collaborate with the Israeli government and some have done for years. One of them spoke to the British paper Guardian, using an alias, since he and the others would be killed instantly by either Hamas or Fatah if they ever returned to Gaza and were found out, “When the Israelis ruled Gaza, people lived like kings. Only when the army goes into Gaza can they finish it.” Another one said in Israel, “Everything is straightforward, not like with the Arabs. Here there is law and there are rights.” Earlier this year crossfirewar.com reported an interview with a former Palestinian militant leader based in the West Bank who openly expressed his disillusionment with the enormously corrupt Palestinian leadership to the extent he said it destroyed any genuine Palestinian identity. [INN]

That is why when governments in the West and elsewhere glibly promote a Palestinian state they are promoting a myth due to the Palestinian communities fragmented tradition with its cult of the gun rule of law(power). At the same time a lot of Palestinians have also been disillusioned with the sometimes suspicious support from Arab and now Iran’s government. Decades ago an article actually admitted Arab governments use the Palestinian issue as a political football which as been a disaster for the Palestinian community. Of course Arab and Western governments cover their failures by blaming Israel. Now Tehran-Damascus are using them as a source of new martyrdom to inspire more Islamic extremism.

Willard Payne is an international affairs analyst who specializes in International Relations. A graduate of Western Illinois University with a concentration in East-West Trade and East-West Industrial Cooperation, he has been providing incisive analysis to NewsBlaze. He is the author of Imagery: The Day Before.